When the mercury is triple digits, sales of hot coffee and tea might very well decline. Does that mean you should offer a discount on hot drinks?

Experiment. One week offer a promo for hot drinks. Another week, offer a sale on iced coffee or other cold drinks.

See which performs better.

Let’s say the promo on hot drinks in summertime doesn’t do anything to drive sales.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t leverage seasonal items.

In fact, you can use flat-selling items to your advantage.

Showcase Flat-Selling, Seasonal Items on Social Media

For example, let’s say that the next several days calls for hot, sticky weather. You’re pretty sure that sales of hot drinks (or soup) are going to be very poor.

What you can do is offer free coffee or soup in exchange for a customer taking a photo with your hot product and posting it on their Instagram with your business hashtag.

You can place a sandwich board outside your storefront announcing the promo:

Free Cups of Coffee to First 50 People!

Include the “fine print” of the promo below the headline. (Just post a pic with the coffee on your Insta.)

Host Community Events

When the weather is hot and sticky, many people prefer to summer hibernate, seeking the comfort of cranked-up air conditioning at home.

However, plenty of other consumers will seek out summer fun regardless of the heat index.

But there’s got to be a strong reason to get them outside of their homes, or movie theater or pool.

Host a weekly music or comedy series. If budget is limited, there are plenty of up and coming talented musicians who will gladly play for free coffee (or soup, if they are indeed a starving artist), in exchange for increased visibility.

Are any of your customers talented photographers? Did one of them recently get back from a trekking vacation in the Himalayas? Invite the customer to exhibit their photos.

Promotional merchandise

The return on investment for promotional merchandise is sometimes difficult to measure.

However, for branding purposes, it can be a smart summertime marketing idea.

For example, you can offer lip balm or small bottles of sunscreen with your business logo. If you can afford it, tie in the merchandise with a promotion.

Finally, either through an email campaign or face-to-face contact, ask your customers what they’d like to see your business offer in the summer. You might be surprised at the creativity your customers will come up with….

Contact us today to get your questions answered about point-of-sale or for a demonstration.